Beginners FAQ on sausage making, meat curing etc may often be found at the head of each relevant section, but here is the place to ask experienced users for advice if you are still stuck or need more information...we're here to help!

I also have a manual grinder/stuffer that I bought at a cabelas a while ago. I would like to make a linked sausage. I don't think I am going to cure or smoke for this run as it is my first try and I do not want to get to fancy. I know the spices are up to me but I need some help with "setting" the links in synthetic casing. I have seen suggestions to cook them briefly in hot water. I am looking to make like a spicy breakfast sausage with a coarser texture. I am looking for some good easy recipes/methods that fill these requirements. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Americans alone, consume six hundred hot dogs every second! That’s more than 16 billion each year… seven billion during the summer months alone!

Hi Dan, Welcome to the forum. Although I’m not Jewish, I have many friends that are and I’ve found that I must know a bit about “kosher” style products. My “kosher” doctor is a great guy and we pal around a lot. He likes my all-beef kosher hot dogs, so I thought I’d send along this recipe to you. If you have ever seen a commercial frankfurter made, you would be amazed. They are actually placed into a plastic casing then slightly heated until the meat “sets”. Next, they go through a plastic casing-stripping machine that boggles the mind. It removes the casing so rapidly that one cannot see it being done. They literally shoot out of the machine, fly through the air, and land in a bin where they develop a “pellicle” or air-dried casing.
However, not everyone can eat pork and I can’t remember where I stole this all-beef recipe, but it is a good one. I’m sure you’ve tried the “Nathan’s beef hot dog”. This recipe will remind you of a “Nathan’s” all-beef hot dog although it is usually put into a larger casing. To make a decent frankfurter, a sausage maker must know how to “emulsify” sausage. Here are some tips.
Frankfurters, bologna, and many other sausages are made with very finely ground meat mixed with a liquid lubricant and is known as emulsified meat. A simple hand grinder is not sufficient to prepare the texture required. With the introduction of the geared food processor in recent years, it is now possible to make very nice emulsified sausages such as wieners or frankfurters. Some folks even use the machine to prepare pepperoni. You’ll have more success using a better processor with direct-drive gears instead of belts. Meat for emulsified sausages is first ground using a regular grinder using a 1/4" plate, then mixed with seasonings and cures before being further processed inside a food processor where the myocin develops a sticky “meat paste”. A liquid (usually icewater) is always added to lubricate the meat, preventing excess wear on the motor of the machine.

To make all-beef frankfurters, cut the nearly-frozen meat into inch chunks then grind them through a 1/4" plate. Grind ‘em again through a 1/8" plate using a little ice water to keep the plate and knives cool. Mix all the dry ingredients together with the Prague Powder then stir the mixture into some of the ice water for even distribution in the meat. Finally, mix every ingredient together, including the meat, making sure the curing agent is distributed entirely throughout the sausage. Emulsify the sausage in small batches inside a food processor, using ice water as needed to thin the mixture slightly and reduce the stress on the motor. Do not over process the meat. When a sticky paste develops, start another batch.

Stuff the sausage into 38 m.m. clear synthethic fibrous casings or plastic casings in desired lengths. Our gang always liked "foot longs". Hang the franks inside your kitchen thirty minutes, then place them into 200° F. (93° C.) water until the internal meat temperature reaches 150° F. (66° C.). Use a probe-type thermometer with cable and alarm. (Poulder is about 30 dollars U.S.). Immediately, immerse them in icewater, lowering the internal meat temperature to room temperature. Strip off the plastic and allow a slight pellicle to bloom before refrigerating them overnight.

PS. Avoid the fibrous casings with protein lining. This casing shrinks with the meat and clings to the product. It is made for dry-cured sausages.

The Western Hot Dog

In 1987, the city of Frankfurt celebrated the 500th birthday and it has been said that the frankfurter was developed there in 1487, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. The people of Vienna, Austria, disagree, reminding all sausage-heads that the name of their city is Wein, as in "wiener", and Austrians claim their home as the birthplace of the hot dog.

It is most likely the North American hot dog comes from sausages of several nationalities, but who was first to slap it on a bun? And who called it a dog? One report says a German immigrant sold emulsified sausages with rolls and sauerkraut, from a pushcart in New York City's Bowery during the Civil War. In 1871, German butcher Charles Feltman opened the first Coney Island hot dog stand selling 3,684 during his first year in business. His "dachshund sausages" were placed inside a roll. Then in 1893, Chicago hosted the Colombian Exposition where hordes of visitors consumed gigantic quantities of sausages sold by vendors. People liked the tasty "dachshunds" as they were easy to eat and convenient and inexpensive to purchase. Within the same year, bread-wrapped sausages became the standard fare at baseball parks sold by the St. Louis Browns major league baseball team owner Chris Von de Ahe, a German immigrant who also owned a bar downtown. Historians say the Germans always ate dachshund sausages with bread and give credit to them for today's hot dog, nestled inside a bun. Some say the term "hot dog" was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day. Vendors were selling hot dogs from portable hot water tanks shouting "They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" A New York Journal sports cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, observed the event and hastily drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell "dachshund" he simply wrote "hot dog"!

Best Wishes, Chuckwagon

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it probably needs a little more time on the grill.

sounds good, but I am realy looking to do a more coarse style sausage. My buther does a breakfast, polish, italian, and regular hotdog in an emulisfied style and they are pretty good but I am looking for some coarser texture.

What a pity you didn't say so up front, as that would have saved Chuckwagon the trouble of typing those unsuitable recipes. Not that he minds, 'cos he's a really helpful type.

In the UK, they used to make (maybe even still do) a "beef banger", though I've not got a recipe for one. The BIG problem with making coarse sausages without pork is not the meat, but the fat. I don't know of another animal that has a fat of the right texture to make a successful coarse sausage. I've looked through all my recipes for "beef sasages", and they call for the use of pork back fat.

You could consider trying to make a Merguez, which is the muslim version to the spanish fresh chorizo. They're pretty good, when well made. (I think someone might have already suggested that). They are made from mutton or lamb meat and fat, and stuffed into sheep casings.

Apart from a Merguez, I think you may be in the position of my friend Marty. She was a recovering alcoholic, who had become vegetarian. She was most offended when I said it wasn't possible to have an alcohol free vegetarian "Coq au Vin" and she called me dictatorial, high handed, and no doubt would have added racist if she's thought of it, or if she'd been from an ethnic minority. I don't think coarse frying sausages and kosher go together. The casings are wrong, the fat is wrong and honestly the meat is wrong. You might be able to make something of the right shape, but the mouthfeel won't be the same without a proper casing (sheep will do at a pinch for a chipolata) and the texture will never be right either.

All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC

Although no religious authority, I believe that Kosher is Kosher; you can't make the rules up as you go along!

This would exclude any form of pork product.
danpeikes

Given that a casing could be found, I recall some very nice chicken sausages made with spinach and cheese posted on the forum. I believe that both chicken and cheese are available that satisy kosher rules and that spinach , as a crop grown on the ground would also be permissable?

I cannot think of a single fresh kosher sausage, they are always smoked or processed in some other way for a reason. You really cannot get beef fat to behave as pork fat no matter what. The ,elting temperatures are different, it can cause it to stick to your teeth and coat your tongue and all sorts of other weirdness. Lamb fat? Did you know rendered fat from sheep and lambs is used in making crayons. Due to it unique properties.

I think Chicken, Duck, or Turkey are going to be your only choices for fresh sausage. Beef is doable, but it will need curing, smoking, and/or emulsifying to become a palatable sausage.

How about making "Beef Bacon" it is as simple as adding the proper amount of cure to coarse ground beef at about 70-30 lean ration, forming it into a slab, keeping it refrigerated for 48 hours, and placing it in the oven at very low temperatures to bring the internal temps up to 152, cooling it, slicing, and frying for service.
I prefer to use a smoker for this, but ou did not state if you had one or not. You could add a drop of liquid smoke to the meat if that is acceptable for you.

If I remember correctly, Staying kosher means no pork, no shellfish, no insect products such as honey, or the red coloring from dried crushed carmine beetle which is common in most artificially-red colored foods, and confectioners glaze is also a product from a beetle.

No dairy products served with beef? Plates or kitchen hardawre that have had fish on/in them cannot be used for beef or other meats? Am I correct on that? It has been over 20 years since I have even seen a kosher market.

I remember seing a place in Chicago on N. California Ave. near Devon. It was named "Tel Aviv Kosher Pizza" I wanted to stop and place an order but we did not have time. Have you been there, was it any good?

What a pity you didn't say so up front, as that would have saved Chuckwagon the trouble of typing those unsuitable recipes. Not that he minds, 'cos he's a really helpful type.

Ian - You are a very nice man! Best Wishes, Chuckwagon

ChucK, I do apperciate it and thanks and will probably try this at some point just not this time. It looks like I am going to go with a lamb merguez style sausage I can get lamb breast pretty cheap. I am off to do some more research and to put the lamd in the freezer until then.

Last edited by danpeikes on Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

If you have so many restrictions on your diet, you'll just have to accept the fact that some food don't have any substitutes. I agree with Ianinfrance. There are several reasons why pork are used in sausages, the most important being the fat. I can't think of any animal fat that has similar physical properties. Besides, pork fat is the only I know that is palatable. You can't make fat-free sausage.

In my opinion, chicken or turkey have neither the texture nor the taste to make them suitable for coarse sausage.

Yes, wheels, you're right. He said STRICTLY kosher. I missed that word. But many jews and muslims are not that extreme. I know quite a few who make exceptions. All of them I know, however, are aware of the fact that ham and sausage contain pork and don't try to reproduce something that is 'unreproduceable'.

I have a friend who is a sober alcoholic. He loves vodka but accepts the fact that there is no alcohol-free vodka. He doesn't consider water to be an acceptable substitute.

Danpeikes, my advice to you, if you persist to confess ancient and totally illogical dietary rules, is to look through the litterature for other recipes. I have eaten delicious kosher and muslim food. Pork is by no means necessary for cooking delicious food, but it is as necessary in fresh or dried coarse-texture sausage as alcohol is in vodka.